Dear Lifehacker,
I've had the same pots and pans for years. Some of it's starting to look a little funky. Should I care about that? Is there a good indicator of when a pan is past its prime?

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Sincerely,
Possibly Poisoning

Dear PP,
We're no strangers to an oddly stained pot or a pan that's seen better days. While it might seem self-explanatory to decide when to replace your cookware, it's not always as cut and dry as it sounds. In reality, most cookware is pretty easy to clean up like new if you know how to do it.

Try to Clean or Fix Up Your Cookware First

More often than not, your cookware looks gross because you're not cleaning it properly. Thankfully, a number of the most common reasons your pots and pans look destroyed are easy to fix, and that means you don't need to replace them.

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In most cases, a good long soaking with water is enough to remove most black residue left over from cooking. For cleaning everything else, it depends on the material of the pot or pan.

Stainless Steel Cookware: For stainless steel cookware, cleaning is a pretty straight forward process, and most damages don't actually affect the cooking quality. To remove stains on the inside of the pot, a little warm vinegar should do the trick. If the stains are on the bottom of the pan, use oven cleaner and follow the directions on the bottle. As for burn stains on the inside of the pan, a solution with vinegar, baking soda, and water along with a little heat will clean it right up. You can even remove rust by scrubbing it off.

I love using my cast iron skillet and carbon steel wok, but on occasion I'll forget to clean…
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Aluminum Cookware: Removing stains from aluminum cookware is a little trickier. TLC recommends using a tablespoon of cream of tartar, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a quart of water. As for polishing up scratches on the outside, a little baking soda and a scouring pad should work.

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The point is that you can rescue most cookware from even the worst kind of negligence. That said, if you've washed it, and it still looks like it's rusting, it's broken in half, or plastic chunks are just coming off everywhere, it's time to replace it.

When Pots and Pans Absolutely Need Replacement

Depending on how you use your pots and pans, they might end up scratched, stained, rusted and otherwise destroyed beyond repair. If the above tips don't work, then it's likely time for replacement.

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I called a couple different cookware manufacturers (Kitchen-Aid and All Clad) to get their recommendation. The general rule of thumb they offered is pretty simple: if any material is coming off the pan and ending up in your food, replace your cookware.

For example, if non-stick pans are flaking off because of scratches, they should be replaced. If nothing else, it's just kind of gross to eat a part of your pan. As The Kitchn points out, when the coating begins to peel off it also makes the pan less non-stick.

As for stainless steel, the representative from KitchenAid recommended that it only needs replacement if a material like copper is showing through after you've scratched or dinged the cookware. So, if the pan is scratched to the point the material beneath the steel is showing, it's probably in your best interest to replace it.

It's also worth noting that both KitchenAid and All-Clad asked me when I purchased the cookware, and if I still had my warranty information. Even if you didn't treat your cookware right, it might still be worth a call to see if they'll replace them.